Have vague recollections from my younger days of cars with vinyl roofs, but just wondered what they were all about.

Were they suppplied on new cars or retrofitted?

And what was the purpose?

• To look good?
  
• To hide rust?
  
• To hide dents if the car had been rolled?
  
• Anything else?
  

Anyone any ideas?

Vinyl roof

Vinyl roof refers to a (Shiny and tough and flexible plastic; used especially for floor coverings) vinyl covering for an automobile's top. This covering was originally designed to give something of the appearance of a convertible to models with a fixed roof, but eventually it evolved into a styling statement in its own right. Vinyl roofs were most popular in the American market, and they are considered one of the period hallmarks of (The decade from 1970 to 1979) 1970s (The largest city in Michigan and a major Great Lakes port; center of the United States automobile industry; located in southeastern Michigan on the Detroit river across from Windsor) Detroit cars. Vinyl roofs were also very popular on European- (especially UK-) and Japanese-built cars during the 1970s, and tended to be applied to sporting or luxury trim versions of standard saloon (sedan) models by pretty much the whole gamut of manufacturers.

HTH helps abit

As for the hides rust bit, it makes the pusting process worse as it can trap water underneath it, unlike a normal painted surface you will not see it until the damage has been long done.

(from http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/V/Vi/Vinyl_roof.htm)

On the mk1 and 2 ford capri it was a factory option, although they could be retro fitted. Alot of them tended to blister.

Why you fancy getting the octavia done?

My dad`s Mk3 Cortina had one, is was a roof covering Ford put on there sports models.

There was a rumour that vinyl roofs were added to imported Japanese cars in the 70's so the cranes didn't scratch the paint off the roofs!

Why you fancy getting the octavia done?

To make it look like a convertable estate?

take a look at this site

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mk3cortina.com/images/tcxle6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mk3cortina.com/australia.htm&h=256&w=500&sz=23&tbnid=gCz9dl9BIDgJ:&tbnh=65&tbnw=127&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dford%2Bcortina%2Bvinyl%2Broof%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Nice link, it brought back loads of memories.

To make it look like a convertable estate?

It would be individual. Do you think you could talk your company round to authorising the conversion?

I'm getting vinyl fitted onto the hood very soon, primarily to protect it, because I have few scratches and stone chips on it...plus it'll look good.

A white car with a black vinyl roof loks great, especially on the honda accord..

My Mum had a 1984 Metro special edition in Metallic Mint Green with a Brown vinyl roof. Terrible car, the best bit was the funky Momo alloys and steering wheel.